Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-on

Google has recently released a Web browser add-on that will stop the browser from sending information to the Google Analytics service.

To provide website visitors with more choice about how their data is collected by Google Analytics, we have developed the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. The add-on communicates with the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js) to indicate that information about the website visit should not be sent to Google Analytics.

Mainly websites use Google Analytics service to know their site’s traffic pattern and to optimize their website further for their visitors. When a person visits a site, Analytics creates a cookie on the person’s computer. Cookies are small data files used to record information about how a person interacts with a website. You can easily remove cookies from any browser.

Google’s new Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on when installed in the supported browsers, basically tells the Google Analytics service that information about the website visit should not be sent to Analytics.

Other add-ons that were available to Firefox users before Google’s official Analytics opt-out add-on is released to block Analytics are Adblock Plus add-on and NoScript add-on. They both can be set to prevent Google Analytics from receiving any information from the browser. Another add-on called OptimizeGoogle, entirely blocks the Google Analytics cookie in addition to modifying other aspects of Google’s behavior, including blocking Google advertisements and modifying the user ID cookie Google assigns to users of its search engine so that they can surf anonymously.

Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-on does not stop Google from putting other cookies such as Google DoubleClick cookie, which tracks the Web pages a person visits and then serves advertisements related to that content.

The Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on is available for Internet Explorer (versions 7 and 8), Google Chrome (4.x and higher), and Mozilla Firefox (3.5 and higher).